Alternative Dwelling & Sustainable Living

In my senior year, we were asked to create a 20 page book about whatever we wanted. We were in charge of layout, content, printing, and hand binding of the book. I had so much fun during the creation of this project; My final book ended up at 110 pages. Included here are a good chunk of my favorite spreads. Please feel free to critique! I am thinking about going back and citing everything properly/asking for permission to print these for distribution so I would love some feedback.
The following was used as my books forward:
We only have one Earth.
It is for this reason that I sought
to create a book with the intent to
inform the general public on why
change is necessary to sustain our
precious Earth.
This book is a basic overview of
alternative housing and sustainable
living. By providing readers
with some insight on the general
ideas of everything that goes into
making their own dwelling spaces,
I’m hoping they will be inspired
and seek to eventually make their own
earthen, ecofriendly dwelling space.
Although this book is not intended
to be used as a stand-alone
guide, I hope readers will use it
as a stepping stool to find further
information about this life enriching
process. Take the basics I have
provided and work towards
making a positive change.

Building houses the most common way known today often involves the use of toxic building supplies. It is costly to buy a house made in this fashion. These dwellings are tough and expensive to maintain, and we haven’t even touched on how much electricity and water costs monthly.

Making a dwelling house out of materials found in your area is less harmful to the environment and is an enlightening experience. You being in control of the design of your dwelling space means you can create a space that is completely customized to your wants and needs.

By building your own dwelling house, you can save thousands of dollars on building and energy costs. A house in Virginia costs an average of $90 a square foot. By building an earthen home, you can bring down the cost to as low as $10 a square foot.